New York's mayoral candidates trade barbs and compliments
NEW YORK (AP) — The candidates running to become New York City's mayor lobbed accusations at each other about palling around with gangsters and acting like children or clowns, but their second debate ended on a surprisingly tender note involving cats and veganism.
A week before the city of 8.8 million people votes to pick a new mayor, Democrat Eric Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa laid out their plans Tuesday for addressing rising violent crime in the city and how to chart a path out of the pandemic's deadly wake.
It was the second meeting between Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president and former New York City police captain who is widely expected to win the election in the heavily Democratic city, and Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol. Sliwa is known for his signature red beret, his streetwise proclamations and his penchant for stunts.
The hourlong debate between two men who have made crime and trustworthiness a focus of their campaigns was at times chippy, unfriendly and even absurd enough to make one stone-faced journalist giggle while posing a question.
On the pandemic, Adams supports a mandate from outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio that city workers such as police officers and firefighters get vaccinated against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave. But Adams said he would have had more discussions with the workers' unions before announcing the policy. Sliwa decried the rule and repeatedly tried to yoke Adams to the unpopular de Blasio.
“You're acting like my son when he was 4 years old,” Adams retorted.
“Eric, show compassion, show care," Sliwa retorted. “Don't just be a robot. People are going to lose their jobs, their income!”
Adams repeated his dismissal of Sliwa as “a clown” who admitted to fabricating his own kidnapping and some of...